Welcome to the good life - West coast honeymoon The Planning

[vitfa]

Hellloooo All, Well the last time i did a pre trippie i didnt do a report (very bad of me). This time im going to do each stage of my planning along with a trip report (taking my laptop with me this time).

So here goes.

The point of the trippie?
Honeymoom - yes thats right i get married 19.08.2011 to my soul mate and best friend. We have been to florida twice and got engaged in Las Vegas. The decision where to go for honeymoon wasnt that hard ... it had to be... USA...

So whats the plans...

Fly from Glas/Edi - poss MAN - on the 22nd of august to Las Vegas.
Since we got engaged here we thought let start where it all began. We stayed in the luxor the last time and we loved it (tower room), although we fancy a different change this time. So far we like, The Signature at MGM, Plant Hollywood, Paris, Trump, and in all dream worlds we would love to stay in the Bellagio (we got engaged at the fountains).
So we will spend 5 days here from the monday to the saturday morning.
We would love to go back to Grand Canyon and do the Skywalk, also do some shows, O at the Bellagio is a must - if anyone has any recommedation please speak now ... ok maybe 'love' the beatles?
Need to do some serious trip planning once this is all booked.

ok so where do we go next ...

[vitfa]

I should have introduce us - although pics will have to wait as i am rubbish at uploading them.
I am lynsey - 23 year old adult nurse from Scotland. Love of all things planning, love disney, holidays, food, reading and most of all traveling to new places with graham

Graham - is a 28year old accountant - with a new promotion to junior manager, love travelling, adventure, is the driver of the trips and usually hears ' i want to go to florida' at least 10 times a day.

So why west coast ?
We love it there - Las Vegas was a blast the last time but i was only 19 so didnt feel we got to experience it all. Grahams dream to go to Yosemite and Hawaii as well so we though why not...

The Plans
Las Vegas 5 days
Death Valley 1 day and overnight stay in ?bishop
Yosemite - 3-4 days
San Francisco - 4 days
Hawaii - Honolulu 7days

[vitfa]

So from Las Vegas - we will be hiring a car and heading to Death Valley and spending some of the day there. Graham has the pick of what to do on this day and im sure he will come up with some good sights.
We were going to stay in Death Valley over night but i havent heard such great reviews and it is expensive, so i found a little town about half way to Yosemite which has the cuest b&b so we will see what happens.
Next day drive to Yosemite, we have 3 full days here so we will be making most of the sights. We are not staying in Yosemite Valley but outside in either Oakhurst or Groveland both have fantastic little b&bs to stay in.

[Guest]

planning sounds great, looking forward to hearing more.

[Guest]

Sounds fantastic mabye a trip to Cali? I would looove to go to Vegas and Cali etc xxx

[Guest]

Sounds fab, looking forward to hearing about Hawaii, i am already planning to go here for my 40th, even though it isn't for a good few years yet!

[vitfa]

I should really update this as we now have booked honeymoon- i will try and do this tommorow L

[vitfa]

Soooo i though i would up date this - gosh cannot belive i wrote the first part in November 2010
So we have booked our honeymoon. Got lots and lots of quote and umming and umming some more we decided - Hawaii was just to much for £ on top of everything else and them more i though about it the less i wanted to go so

Here are the plans

Leave EDI - NY - LV 23RD August
7 days in NYNY - Las Vegas - A little concerned as reviews not the greatest but again it has some thing like 2000 rooms and im not sure they can please everyone - as long as its clean ill be happy - we are never ever in the room

30th August - Check out NYNY early - have early breakfast and go to airport to pick up rental car ... for drive to ... DEATH VALLEY

Spend most of day to Death Valley and then drive onto Bishop ( half way to Yosemite)
We are staying the night in a lovely B&B - booked directly through the owners

31st, 1st 2nd - Yosmite - exploring the park - more on that later
Will be staying in B&B again book directly with the owner - 20mins from the vally itself

3rd September - driving to San Francisco - check in at The Handlery - Union Square - explore then dinner
4th, 5th 6th, 7th - San Francisco - lots planned more on that later

8th September - early morning flight to New York - arriving in NJ - early tea time - Hotel Metro - mid town - plan to dump bags, vet room the out to explore - possible ESB or TOTR at night - which is best for at night?

9th , 10th - full day in NY
11th - depart NY (EWR) at 1020pm but due to the assumed amount of traffic and people paying there respects to 9.11 (10th anniversary) we will be leaving sharp ? whether train will be best way out of city?

12th Arrive early morning EDI


Thanks for reading if you got this far

L

[vitfa]

So plans are coming along nicely we have the following plans

Las Vegas
KA show
jabbawockeez show
Bellagio Fountains
Hotel hopping see all themes and casinos
Grand Canyon bus tour
Shark Reef Mandalay Bay
Lion Encounter MGM Hotel
Shop at one of the outlet malls
Freemont Street Experience
Cocktails and night out
NYNY rollercoaster
M&M World
Volcano and Aquarium at Mirage
The secret garden at Mirage
Bellagio Conservatory
Luxor Tomb
Town Square
CSI Experience

This is what we have in LV so far - we have 8 nights and 7 days so lots to pack in

In death valley and Yosemite we are pretty relaxed - OH is in charge of DV plans so im going with the flow for this.

Yosemite

Half Dome
Glacier Point
Tioga Pass

Need to more researching in this area

San Francisco

I need to plan alot more for this area aswell ( also need to get a planning book)

Alcatraz ( day tour)
FW
Golden Gate Bridge ( including bike tour)
Sausalito
Coit Tower

If anyone has any suggestion for any of these places please let me know

New York

ESB
Statue of Liberty - with crown tickets (booked)
American Natural History Museme
Brooklyn Bridge
METS game
Wall Street
WTC memorial
Grand Central Station
Flat Iron Building
High Line Park


L x

[Cyclospora]

We liked the view from the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Stratosphere. Also just spend time wandering around the hotels. Loved the food court in NY NY and the breakfasts in Planet Hollywood.
Ny - the real one! TOTR was amazing but in the dark there would be a big dark blob where Central Park is so maybe ESB would be better. Try a bus tour at night - part of a hop on hop off package - great views of the city lit up. We hired bikes in Central park which was a great experience too